Thursday, 21 June 2012

Lars Wall barbershop, Milton, North Dakota. 1917. The interior of a barbershop with two chairs. Large
mirrors, a sink, and a glass cabinet are visible. The words "Kochs
Toilet Requisites" are on the door. On the wall hang three pictures of
horses, and there are two advertisements for "The Leader Anna Held Cigar
5c." There is also a stuffed fox and ceiling light. "April 1917, Bill Bell, Barber" -- Back of hand-colored print.
(Fred Hultstrand History in Pictures Collection, North Dakota State
University Institute for Regional Studies / Library of Congress Prints
and Photographs Division)

D. Meek, south of Broken Bow, Custer County, Nebraska. Note: The furs on the wagon wheel are fox.
The pelt held by the man with the beard is badger. Beside him, a pile of
traps. The wagon cover over a hole in the ground is a common first
dwelling: photo by Solomon Devore Butcher, 1890 (Nebraska State Historical / Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division)

Roy Merriott, farmer, holding foxes which he has killed on his farm, near Estherville, Iowa:
photo by Russell Lee, December 1936 (Farm Security Administration /
Office of War Information Collection / Library of Congress)

Perley Mosley with three pelts from foxes he trapped at Eden Mills, Vermont:
photo by Arthur Rothstein, December 1941 (Farm Security Administration /
Office of War Information Collection / Library of Congress)

Miss Margaret Phelan, sitting in front of a backdrop in a room in Chicago, Illinois. She is wearing a fox stole:
photographer unknown, for Chicago Daily News, 1917 (Chicago Daily News
Collection, Chicago History Museum / Library of Congress Prints and
Photographs Division)

Mrs. Gladys Graham Fox,
wearing a fox fur stole, sitting on the edge of a desk with her hands in
her lap and looking away from the camera in a room in Chicago, Illinois: photographer unknown, for Chicago Daily News, 1923 (Chicago Daily News
Collection, Chicago History Museum / Library of Congress Prints and
Photographs Division)

Mrs. David Forgan, standing in a booth at the Allied Bazaar in Chicago, Illinois. A fox pelt displayed on a stand is next to her and a sign on the wall behind her reads selected silver fox skins $1.00 dollar a share:
photographer unknown, for Chicago Daily News, 13 January ca. 1917 (Chicago Daily News
Collection, Chicago History Museum / Library of Congress Prints and
Photographs Division)

Fox ranching is about the main commercial operation on the
various inhabited Aleutian Islands. The islands form a vast wildlife
refuge but fox ranching is permitted under license by the United
States Fish and Wildlife Service of the Department of the Interior.
There are very few wild animals on these islands although there were
once a number of wild foxes. The foxes which form the basis of the Aleutian industry were generally imported:
photo by V. B. Scheffer, August 1938 (U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service /
Department of the Interior/ Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
Division)

Very cold and foggy over here in the land mass notch wind tunnel, cats all sleeping off the contagious household stress after an awful (and scary) day's venture into the institutional health care franz kafka nightmare machine.

That Turkish fox looks as though adversity has been faced and conquered. One has to admire the wit and tenacity.

But the photo of the "hunt foxes" in the cage awaiting the hounds... that touched a nerve. Also I've always found the Vachon shot of the fox chained to the bumper of the car mysterious and strange and sad and brave and weird at the same time -- the pure eye of John Vachon.

By the by the proprietor of that barbering establishment upon which the stuffed and mounted Red Fox in the top photo has no choice but to look down was one Lars Wall. Born circa 1864 in Sweden, Lars immigrated to America in 1879, came to the Milton, N.D. area circa 1890 and there opened the barber shop which entraps our view here. In 1900 Lars married Bessie Tanstrum, also a Swedish immigrant. The family eventually included three children. They moved to California in 1915. Bessie died in 1929 and Lars in 1940. The stuffed and mounted fox would have died sometime before 1917. The photo was taken by barber Bill Bell in the spring of that year.

The father had a shredded map that saidOrinoco on one side and Munich on the other.He knew he was supposed to go somewhere.Somewhere he had not worked before. Somewherebetter. Anywhere but here. To go unnoticed.Work for a better boss.

This god damn America coming homeWith a couple of fox furs. One white, one grey.They aren’t toys and they aren’t for wearing.You’re not too drunk to know

these foxes are symbols of deaththe mother said as she walked overto the TV to shut off Hogan’s Heroes—a show that was only interesting when Hogan got to kiss the Kraut Girland their arms looked muscular.This American crap!

After the kissing ended she fedthe family cakes. Pies of gold because the goldwent down their throats so easily.They would munch and swallow, munchand swallow. Right down into their hearts.Into the different chambers of their hearts.Into an imaginary land of richeswhere there was no love no time to waste.

It's so sad to see these--you know that research on taming foxes-how they change colors when they are tamed? I mean--over time.

One year I went to Maine with my mother, and my dad stayed home--and he let the chickens out. He hated taking care of the chickens. Every morning I'd see a red fox running across the alfalfa with a chicken in its mouth. Then we had to buy eggs--those pale tasteless eggs from Safeway.

The fenced-in photo is harrowing and disturbing, not least for the centering of the corner into which the poor creatures are backed. They appear as tiny as the horse and humans do large. And yet, there is something singular about each of them in that pen, each draws the eye in its own way. Unlike the dogs, for example, which I only see in the plural, or even the humans, whose cruelties have always been shopworn clothing, soiling them all in different degrees.

And, yes, as you mention, Tom, the photo of the solitary fox leashed to the car. A lovely, mysterious shot. I am happy that, if nothing else, this time it appears to have been given water (the purpose of the Folgers can, I assume).

I've been thinking about this since yesterday. I hate expressions like "impossibly moving." They sound like newspaper movie reviews. But this series is impossibly moving and confusing also. (Thinking of Nin's comment.) Curtis

Confusing to consider what to do about the foxes carrying off the chickens. Advise the foxes not to be hungry?

I suppose a human could regard just about any thing, living or dead, human or non-human, as a symbol of death. But it's hard to think about a fox that way while looking at foxes grooming.

Yes, Vassilis, those Chicago Daily News captions are remarkably literal and detailed (and more than a bit obvious at that). I believe that since these were Chicago's versions of the elegant femme du monde, they would have been considered exemplars of style to the female newspaper audience.

I once had my picture in the Chicago Daily News. I was photographed at Union Station with my friend Jimmy Degen. We were pictured in our winter earmuffs. I had just won the Chicago Daily News city-wide fifth grade spelling bee. The caption was a bit less detailed. It did not for example say that we were wearing earmuffs.

As far as advising the fox, we spend a great deal of time advising the cats and dogs (in spoken English) on all sorts of matters. The jury is still out regarding the effectiveness of the practice. Last week our dachshund Andy, who had back surgery last year (he's doing great but in terms of medical protocol his recovery period continues for a while), devoured a dead mouse, which I assume had recently been prey to one of our cats. It was a hideous moment, but vets always advise you that hunger is a sign of health and Andy is always hungry. We believe the mouse made him terribly ill for a couple of days. We told this to the vet who hadn't ever come across this phenomenon. Andy's fine now, although he's being treated (with apparent success) for Lyme Disease. Sometimes our animal pageant seems to be a chimera. Other times it seems realer than anything else going on in our lives. Curtis

If only a similar care and solicitousness had been extended toward those "hunt foxes" in the cage at Midlothian. The photo is difficult to erase from the mind, once seen. Hauntings are of course all the mind of the haunted, but still.

Brad's words echo here:

"The fenced-in photo is harrowing and disturbing, not least for the centering of the corner into which the poor creatures are backed."

Through the mists of time waft curious memories of working at golf events at Midlothian. The place named after the Walter Scott tale, of course. In a place like Chicago, all claims to "civilization" would have to depend heavily on exotic imports. Keeping in mind the stink of the stockyards, where so many of those great country club fortunes had their bloody origins, were probably in the noses of the hounds even as they were let loose upon the helpless target fox. Karma is such a complicated affair to consider, still impossible to dispel once considered -- not unlike that Midlothian cage shot.